An Long-haired English-teaching Vegetarian

This week, I really just want to tell you about one specific person. Her name is 洪嘉君 (Hóng Jīa Jūn).

So about a week and a half ago now, she walked into our English class with her cute almost two year old daughter. When we asked her how she heard about our English class, she said, in perfect English herself, that she simply looked it up online, found out it was free, and decided to come. So at the end of the class we told her that we also teach about Jesus Christ and she said up a time with us to learn more.

We got her address and it turns out she lives in the neighboring area which only has Elders. But because of President Peterson’s rule that Sisters teach females and Elders teach males, we got the permission to teach her.

Now when we show up and start getting to know her, it turns out that eight years ago she was studying in the United States. Right before she was to return to Taiwan, she decided that she wanted to go see the temple in Salt Lake City because she simply wanted to. There she met the missionaries for the first time and had a tour of Temple Square.

Okay, so now we are teaching her the first lesson, the Restoration, and she is soaking it all in. She is loving the idea of a prophet because it makes our church “alive”. And it truly does make our church alive. We are continually receiving new revelation and that is amazing! God does live and still talks to us today! All of us! That’s so cool!

As we are finishing this first lesson, we are inviting her to come to church, read the Book of Mormon, and pray to know if our message is true. And she almost immediately starts praying and asking. It was incredible.

The next day we followed up on praying and reading the Book of Mormon, and she said while reading she felt like she wasn’t alone and like she was being comforted. I can testify that that feeling is the Holy Ghost allowing us to feel Heavenly Father’s love for us. She said that she loved being able to pray and have the opportunity for Heavenly Father to send messages to her.

She came to church on Sunday and loved every minute! She is so cute and so prepared to hear this Gospel and how much it can bless her family.

I meet amazing people every day! I could not imagine being anywhere else! Taiwan is the best place and being a missionary is the best work!

Funny things that happened this week:

1. English class. We were teaching the sounds of “S” and “G” and giving example words that they had to repeat. Let’s just say that “shirt” was a poorly chosen word Haha and we accidentally made a lot of Taiwanese people swear. Haha

2. We got lost inside a market. They are literal mazes of shop after shop after shop. Well one of these shops had some lovely animals just chillin. And by lovely animals I mean entire pig legs sitting on the table and a pig head hanging by the snout. Let’s just say I stopped dead in my tracks and almost passed out. It was nasty. Haha Luckily one of our members worked at the shop right behind the pig stand and offered to guide us out of the market. Ew.

3. A lady we were talking to on the street appeared to have lots of interest and set up to have a chapel tour the next day. That night she texted us and asked us to set her up on a date with some of our American friends haha. The next day she didn’t show up. Turns out she wanted boys and not so much the Gospel Haha oh well.

4. I had my first experience with knocking doors as a missionary. Yeah, we don’t do it often in Taiwan, but it finally happened. We had no success, but there were some pretty funny responses. My favorites: *ring doorbell* someone opening a window on the third floor and asks what we want. We introduce. They tell us they’re sleeping and close the window. Not even two minutes later he walked out the front door and down the street to the Seven to buy cigarettes. Haha *ring doorbell* and giving our pitch to someone at the door. The guy who’s standing outside at the next house over smoking runs inside and deadbolts the door while yelling 不用 (need not).

5. 請客 (feeding missionaries dinner). One we were at this week was dishing up food into our bowls of rice, and placed some interesting looking meat in my bowl. I say interesting because it was 98% fat and 2% beef. It sat in my rice bowl for 25 minutes as I tried to build up the courage to eat it. I looked at my companion with a look of horror and she simply waited for when people weren’t looking, grabbed it out of my bowl, and ate it. She really took one for the team! Haha I bought her ice cream as repayment. But considering this and the pigs, vegetarian might be the life for me.

Haha that’s about all for me!

Happy New Year!

I love you all so so so much!!!
安姐妹